On the agenda this morning: students and St Andrews, Israel and Palestine, wind power, Brian Souter, and Scottish football.
Students are ideal residents for town centre
Sir,-So now we know what the real reason was for demanding a stop to more houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in the conservation area in St Andrews to ensure that there are window boxes on display.
Never mind that Fife Council has just alienated at least a third of the town’s residents not just the students and its major employer we will have pretty window boxes to look at.
I am afraid every time I hear someone protest that this measure is not anti-student I become even more convinced that it is. This is, of course, the same council committee that recently refused an application for custom-built university accommodation in the town centre.
In the second decade of the 21st century, I’m afraid there is no way that the number of students is going to be reduced to four, three or two thousand.
At least the fig-leaf of wanting a moratorium on HMOs to provide affordable housing for local families has now been dropped.
The price of houses in St Andrews conservation area will never fall into the “affordable” category, whether for sale or rent. And even if they did, families with young children are unlikely to want to live in a busy town centre, with a lack of car-parking, no gardens and often accessible by flights of stairs.
Indeed, one would have thought that the ideal occupants of such properties would be fit, young people, having a low rate of car ownership and as yet unencumbered by small children in short, undergraduates.
Other than remaining unoccupied there are now two possibilities for houses which would have become new HMOs. They may become houses for only two students, thus avoiding the need for HMO authorisation, or they will become holiday homes, occupied for only six weeks of the year rather than 30.
Jane Ann Liston.5 Whitehill Terrace,St Andrews.
Palestinian losses not invented
Sir,- Flora Selwyn berates Dundee City Council for listening to “crassly invented stories about Israeli aggression”. Presumably the Jewish Israeli author Gideon Levy, who visited Dundee University last year, was also crassly inventing stories when he stated that what was perpetrated on the people of Gaza during the 21 days of Operation Cast Lead was a “war crime”.
Levy reminded us the Israeli offensive killed 1330 Palestinians, of whom more than 430 were children and left 5430 wounded.
Thankfully not a single Israeli child was killed by Hamas rockets, although 10 Israeli military personnel and three civilians were killed, according to official figures.
I would be happy to provide Flora Selwyn with the names and ages of at least 352 of the Palestinian children who were killed.
Patrick Donachie.25 Kennet Walk,Dundee.
Similar turbines for comparison
Sir,-I refer to comments by Liberal Democrat member for Montrose, David May, and the “potential” for the area due to proposed 180 wind turbines at Inch Cape. There is no potential for anything except to bankrupt the UK.
If we have a look at the identical scheme of 180 offshore wind turbines at Thanet, already built and commissioned, we find it created only 21 permanent full-time jobs at a cost of £3 million per job per year, £57 million over a 20-year lifetime.
It will cost taxpayers £1.2 billion in subsidies over the coming years to the owners, which in the Inch Cape scheme are Spanish and Portuguese. These subsidies will come from increase in all our fuel bills which was not mentioned.
When the wind does not blow, the scheme provides zero power and has to be backed up by fossil fuel generation or the lights go out.
It works at less than 26% of the full capacity over the year.
Comparing wind turbines to oil is the sign of a desperate man. Oil is most useful. I suggest David May carry out some research before making ludicrous and misleading statements. If he thinks the scheme will be fantastic then he is delusional and naive.
At the time of writing, (June 10), information on the NETA energy website advises that the total power generated by all of the wind farms in the UK is a miserly 0.7% of the total required load. If Alex Salmond wants to generate 100% of Scotland’s energy from renewables he has only to find an additional 99.3%.
Mike Brannan.Hardwick,Cambs.
Job worthy of knighthood
Sir,-I have had no experience of the services to the voluntary sector for which Brian Souter has been awarded his knighthood and would hardly call what he has done to our bus and rail networks to be services to transport but we must not forget other services.
In funding an unofficial referendum, he attempted to save our children from being persuaded of the attraction of same sex activities. It is a shame that his efforts did not succeed.
Could Sir Brian now be persuaded to direct some of the respect engendered by his new title into a campaign to shore up marriage?
John Eoin Douglas.7 Spey Terrace,Edinburgh.
League fixtures are a laugh
Sir,-It is often said that world football laughs at Scottish football. I don’t think so, as I doubt world football notices us.
If it did, however, the latest one worth a laugh must be the headline: Rangers play their joker.
This is to opt out of a league fixture to play Chelsea in a friendly tit for tat for Celtic playing in Dublin earlier.
Maybe Dundee United should arrange a Forfarshire cup tie.
The biggest joke of the lot is when the SPL splits in early April and proceeds to then only play five more games in the league season.
Andrew Wilkie.34 Main Street,Kingskettle.
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